Cathleen Nesbitt, the distinguished British actress, was equally famous for the 'My Fair Lady' role she created in old age and her love affair with one of Britain's most romantic poets 70 years ago.
Miss Nesbitt, who died Monday at 93, was best known to Americans as Henry Higgins' mother in 'My Fair Lady.' She was still playing the role opposite Rex Harrison on tour last year.
In her homeland, Miss Nesbitt was always a symbol of young love. At the age of 90 she complained that her achievements as an actress were still somewhat blurred by public interest in her great romance with the poet Rupert Brooke.
Brooke died in Greece in 1915, and Miss Nesbitt went on, building a 70-year career that filled more than three columns of 'Who's Who In the Theatre.'
Besides her distinguished career on the stage in Britain and the United States, Miss Nesbitt, who was known for never turning down a job, appeared with Cary Grant in the film 'An Affair to Remember,' with Marlon Brando in 'Desiree,' and with Richard Burton in 'Staircase.'
Her other films included 'The French Connection' and 'Three Coins in the Fountain'. In television she appeared in the award-winning British series 'Upstairs Downstairs' and 'Separate Tables.'
Miss Nesbitt was born Nov. 24, 1888, and as a little girl traveled the world on the tramp steamer of which her father who was a captain. She was educated in Belfast and studied drama in London, making her debut Oct. 10, 1910, at the Court Theater.
In 1912, already famous for her beauty, Miss Nesbitt was introduced to the rising young poet Brooke, tall, blond and blue-eyed and one of the handsomest men in England.
In later years, Miss Nesbitt insisted her romance with Brooke was poetic and not physical, although after his death she said she regretted not having had a child by him.
'Cathleen is incredibly, inordinately, devastatingly, immortally, calamitously, hearteningly, adorably beautiful,' wrote Brooke, who died at 28 of septicemia in World War I on the eve of battle in Greece.
In 1921, she married Cecil Ramage, a student seven years who junior who played Antony to her Cleopatra in an Oxford University production. They had a son and daughter and separated some 20 years later.
Shemade her American debut in New York in 1911 with the Irish Players and returned many times thereafter for Broadway or touring roles.
But to Americans, her name was always linked to that of Mrs. Higgins, Henry's wise and sophisticated monther. She originated the role on Broadway 25 years ago, recreating it in the film version and again in a revival with Rex Harrison that toured the country last year.
She told friends during the 'My Fair Lady' tour that her memory was failing and that she knew, whenever she saw a stricken look on Harrison's face, that she had made a mistake. But her co-star, she said, always skillfully covered for her.
In her stage career, Miss Nesbitt played the lead in 'Quality Street', 'Justice', 'Hassan', 'Spring Cleaning', 'The Case of the Frightened Lady', 'Children in Uniform', 'Our Betters', 'Medea', and Goneril in Granville Barker's all-star production of 'King Lear' in 1940.
In later stage appearances she played in 'The Cocktail Party', and in New York in 'Gigi', 'Sabrina Fair' 'Anastasia' (in which she replaced Eugenie Leontovitch as the Dowager Empress at the Lyceum Theater in 1955), 'My Fair Lady' and 'The Sleeping Prince'. Other stage hits included 'The Royal Family' and 'The Aspern Papers.'
